The burden of establishing that a party to a marriage had lacked capacity through insanity, lay on the party making the assertion. The court is to decide whether the respondent was capable of understanding the nature of the contract, and the duties and responsibilities created, and was free of morbid delusions on the subject.
Sir James Hannen P said that marriage involves ‘protection on the part of the man, and submission on the part of the woman’
Sir James Hannen P
[1885] 10 PD 10, 1 TLR 338
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Sheffield City Council v E; Re E (An Alleged Patient) FD 2-Dec-2004
The council sought an order to prevent E, a patient from contracting a marriage which it considered unwise. As a preliminary issue the parties sought guidance as to the questions to be put to the expert as to capacity.
Held: The woman suffered . .
Cited – Masterman-Lister v Brutton and Co, Jewell and Home Counties Dairies (No 1) CA 19-Dec-2002
Capacity for Litigation
The claimant appealed against dismissal of his claims. He had earlier settled a claim for damages, but now sought to re-open it, and to claim in negligence against his former solicitors, saying that he had not had sufficient mental capacity at the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Family, Health
Leading Case
Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.223064
